An alkyl glycoside and a sophorose lipid are glycolipids and are formulated with various kinds of detergents as a surfactant.
Industrial production of the alkyl glycoside or the sophorose lipid is mainly made by chemical synthesis using sugar and alcohol as raw materials, but has problems of needing a large amount of raw material alcohol and causing denaturation of raw material glucose because a reaction under a high temperature and a high pressure is carried out.
From such situations, technologies of producing glycolipids using microorganisms have been studied in pursuit of high production efficiency. For example, it has been reported that when Candida bombicola, one of yeast, is cultured in a medium containing sugar and alcohol, alkyl sophorosides or sophorose lipids are obtained as a product (Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 1).